23 Oct 2013

If Seattle 1.0 represents lumber and trade and Seattle 2.0 is synonymous with aerospace and technology, what does the future hold for Seattle 3.0?

A building that produces its own water, an app that records HQ footage of a concert you just attended, a beverage company that went from bankruptcy to a half-million dollar brand in less two years, and a graduate program that treats students like customers rather than mere information receptors. The common vein among them all? A need to disrupt industry standards to find new ways to thrive in our rapidly growing global city. Oh, and all these brands were explored at the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber’s 131st Annual Meeting on October 4, 2013.

The Chamber, in its centennial-plus lifespan, has been involved with all of Seattle’s former incarnations—first with Seattle 1.0 (lumber and industry trade) and later with Seattle 2.0 (aerospace and technology). It seems only fitting then that this Seattle business conglomerate should be leading a discussion about our future 3.0 selves before we’ve even gotten there.
But let’s bring it back closer to home and talk about UW. Our very own Communications Leadership Director Hanson Hosein was the panel moderator and education-sector representative for this rallying event. Also on the panel were Kevin Klock, the president & CEO of TalkingRain who took the company from rags to riches; Dean Graziano, a serial entrepreneur who recently launched his first Seattle-based startup called Lively and is loving the concert scene here in the PNW; and Ron Rochon, the managing partner at Miller Hull who heads up design for the Bullitt Foundation, housed in currently the greenest living building—wait for it— in the world.

For these leaders, Seattle 3.0 has meant playing to win, not lose. It has meant not being afraid to fail, and being aggressive by being focused.

As Hosein told the crowd, the story of Seattle is still unwritten. The panelists and the Chamber alike are already looking forward to the next iteration of our city.
Signing out, each panelist provided one parting thought about the future:

Hanson: If you look at the population of the city in its limits, we’re talking about three-quarters of million people. It has incredible global reach—Starbucks, Boeing, Costco, Microsoft, Amazon, Weyerhaeuser, Microsoft, Nordstom, TalkingRain. We are hitting way above our weight. What does that mean for us for the future?

Rochon: zWe need to break down centralized infrastructure (like electricity and water) to smaller district scales so that they can be handled with more efficiency.

Klock: Seattle is extremely brand-rich for its population base. I think you’ll see us go from brand rich in the U.S., and in Seattle 3.0, we’ll be a global leader.

Graziano: We have no choice but to be global these days, and technology helps us to do that. There are no barriers.

P.S.: We have something for you…

We also debuted a musical mash-up of Electro Soul duo Fly Moon Royalty and Seattle Opera tenor Karl Marx Reyes. Lively (you know, those guys we mentioned above with the awesome app?) gave us a promo code to download and listen to/watch the performance! Here’s how: